Emma Swan- Occasional Mechanic
by Ms.Informed13
Summary: "I can do it." Emma insisted again, "Hand me the new bulb." "No." The brunette was finally putting her foot down, "Get down, this is ridiculous." "I'm nearly done, just hand me the bulb." "Emma, you're going to fall and hurt yourself." Or, three times Emma tries to fix something and one time she doesn't. AU short and fluffy.


**A/N-This is a four shot, in the same style as my previous story 'Emma Swan- Head Injury Collector' It's an AU but sort of fits in with the previous story's universe.**

* * *

Regina cursed once more before snacking her hand angrily across the steering wheel. She had a meeting in an hour and AAA just told her it would take at least double that to get a mechanic out to her. She took a moment to curse Storybrooke for being so far out in the boondocks that she was stranded with nothing but trees for miles. Regina was only making the trip because the town was at the head of a proposed pipeline that would benefit the entire state, and she had to convince the mayor to greenlight the project.

Resigning herself to her fate, Regina popped the trunk and got out of her Benz. She stripped off her blazer and white button up, laying them carefully in the backseat to avoid any damage, and began rummaging through the back.

Henry Mills had taught his daughters many things, believing that regardless, there were some things all women should just know, changing a tire was one of those things.

Regina found the tools she would need, and easily hefted out her spare tire, careful to not get any dirt on her white undershirt or her pencil skirt.

She had just set about loosening the first bolt when another car pulled up behind hers on the side of the road.

Regina straightened up, prepared to either brush off any unwanted help, or bash in an assailant's head with her wrench. Then again, what self respecting serial killer drove a beat up Volkswagen bug?

To her surprise a shock of blonde hair emerged from the car, followed by one of the widest smiles Regina had ever seen.

"Can I give you a hand with that?" The blonde asked, staying a respectful distance away.

"No, thank you." Regina said, trying to brush her off.

"Are you sure?"

The woman had her hands shoved deep in the pockets of the worst red leather jacket Regina ever had the displeasure of seeing, and though that initially endeared her to the woman, her patience was wearing thin.

"I'm perfectly capable of changing a tire on my own." Regina insisted, continuing in her loosening of the bolts.

"I can see that, I just don't want you to have to."

"Really, I'm fine."

The blonde leant against a nearby tree, watching Regina struggle with her wrench, "Well I can't just leave you here alone."

Regina stood up straight, shooting a pointed look at the empty woods around them, "Oh yes, it seems quite dangerous out here."

"Bears in Maine can be vicious." The blonde merely shrugged.

Rather than read too much into the woman beside her, Regina focused on loosening the last bolt. That accomplished, she went again to her trunk to search for her car jack.

"Damn." She cursed quietly.

She heard a faint rustle before the woman's voice, closer than it had been before, "Do you need this?"

The blonde was holding out a car jack that looked to be as beat up as her Volkswagen.

Reluctantly, Regina accepted the tool and positioned it under her car, "Can I help you now?"

The lawyer sized up the blonde, "Why are you so insistent on helping?"

"I'm a state trooper, it's what I do."

Regina's eyebrow rose as she sized the blonde up, "Really?"

"Really." The blonde confirmed, "That, and I can't leave a beautiful woman stranded."

With a sigh, Regina straightened up to regard the state trooper who was so insistent on helping, "What is your name?"

"Emma, Emma Swan."

"Well Ms. Swan." Regina began with a smile, "Who am I to deny the services of one of Maine's finest?"

Emma mirrored her smile and stepped forwards to begin working on the tire.

* * *

"Babe, it's not that big of a deal. We can just call the super in the morning."

Emma sighed from her place up on the two chairs she had precariously stacked on top of each other to be able to reach the ceiling. She knew that Regina knew how much she liked it when the brunette called her 'babe' and thus only did it when she wanted something, "It's not a big deal, I can change a lightbulb."

"Yes, but-"

"Trust me, Gina. It's fine."

Regina merely bit her lip, standing back against the far wall, hovering between wanting to intervene and stop her girlfriend, and not wanting to be in the danger zone should Emma's impromptu ladder come tumbling down.

It was eleven thirty at night, and Regina had off-handedly mentioned something about how she wished that they had a ladder so they could change the bulb that had been burnt out in their entryway ever since they had moved into the tiny Boston apartment.

Motivated by a couple of beers the women had shared earlier in the evening, Emma immediately jumped up off the couch where they had been snuggling, and was determined to change the bulb.

Though Regina would normally never argue the sight of her girlfriend in nothing more than a tank top and thong, seeing her so high up with only the support of two rickety kitchen chairs was quite anxiety producing.

"Why don't you just wait until morning and fix it then?" Regina hopefully suggested.

"I can do it." Emma insisted again, "Hand me the new bulb."

"No." The brunette was finally putting her foot down, "Get down, this is ridiculous."

Emma already had the light cover off and was in the process of unscrewing the old bulb, "I'm nearly done, just hand me the bulb."

"Emma, you're going to fall and hurt yourself."

"I'm fine." Emma dismissed, having successfully removed the burnt out bulb. Seeing that Regina was absolutely not giving in and handing her the bulb, Emma did the only logical thing.

She put one hand on the ceiling for stability, and reached over as far as she could to try and get to the bulb on the counter herself. When her fingers were just a couple of inches shy of her target, she lifted up one foot to try and stretch herself even further.

"Emma!"

The events played out in slow motion for Regina, as the chairs stacked on top of eachother slid out of place, and Emma in her ridiculous stretch was ejected from her perch. The blonde fell with surprising grace, managing to avoid hitting her head on the counter, and instead she just sort of fell pitifully to the side onto the hard wood of the entryway.

She threw one arm out to break her fall, and once the chairs were settled, and things stopped crashing down, Regina rushed forwards.

"Emma, are you alright?"

Emma groaned rolling over and flinging an arm over her face. Regina just rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's dramatics. She knelt beside Emma and pushed the blonde's hair off her face.

"Did I get it?"

Regina rolled her eyes, "No dear, you didn't."

"Damn." Emma said, pushing herself into a sitting position, "I would have gotten it if you had handed me the light bulb."

"That's it." Regina declared, standing up and walking away from a still floored Emma, "I'm done. You're an idiot, and I'm going to bed."

Emma watched from her spot as Regina disappeared down the hall and into their bedroom, "Baby?"

When there was no response, Emma resigned herself to dragging herself to her feet and following Regina's steps to their room.

* * *

"Henry, have you seen your mother?"

"She's in the garage with Mr. Tillman."

Regina just sighed, she knew that Emma was desperately trying to save her volkswagon despite it's age. She had been working on it for a week straight by now, and she had called in just about every person in town with an inch of handy knowledge.

Mr. Tillman had gotten roped in a couple of days ago, and he was already as invested in the car as Emma was.

But the blonde had an ultimatum, she had to either prove that the car was road safe by the end of the month, or get rid of it. Emma had five days left.

"How's the car coming along?" Regina knew that the twelve year old had been hanging around the garage just as much as his mother, trying to learn something about cars that might help him later in life.

"Good, they're working on the steering console now."

"You mean the steering wheel?" Regina asked, she was making a salad to go with lunch and already thinking through their meals for the rest of the week.

"No, Ma said they were working on the steering console."

Regina froze, "Please tell me your mother is not sitting in the driver's seat."

"She is."

"Shit." Regina muttered, dropping her knife and sprinting out of the kitchen.

She just barely made it out of the house and was in the doorway of the garage when she heard the telltale loud hiss of an airbag deploying, and she held her breath for a half second.

Tillman popped up from where he had been bent over the open hood of the car, he looked as though he had seen a ghost, and his face was five shades paler than normal.

"Emma?" Regina yelled, rounding car to look in the open driver's side door.

The blonde was sitting back, deployed airbag slowly shrinking in her lap, clutching her left hand to her right shoulder with a grimace.

"You idiot!" Regina shouted, at this point, she was beyond caring about using a more appropriate voice to address her wife. Between the electrical short that had happened a couple of days prior, shocking Emma, and the incident last week when the Volkswagen slipped off the car jack and nearly crushed Henry, Regina was at the end of her rope, "How did you not see that happening? You're just lucky it didn't snap your neck!"

"Gina-"

"I cannot believe how irresponsible you've been with this entire project!"

"Gina-"

"I've got half a mind to sell this car right now!"

"Regina!" The blonde finally yelled.

"What?"

"I think I dislocated my shoulder."

Regina instantly went from pissed to concerned, "Come on, let's get you to the hospital."

Two hours later, and Emma was sitting on a hospital bed, high on pain meds, waiting for Doctor Whale to come back to reset her shoulder.

Regina was standing beside her wife, watching the loopy blonde, and trying to make sure she didn't fall off the bed.

"Your hair is so pretty." Emma slurred.

"Thank you, dear."

"And your face. Your face is so pretty."

Regina couldn't help but smile at her out of it wife, "Thank you." She said, patting down Emma's unruly curls.

"You're just so pretty. I love you so much."

"I love you too, dear."

"Are you really going to sell my baby?"

Emma made her best pathetic puppy dog face, it's effectiveness was compounded by the slight glaze to her drugged up eyes, Regina was helpless by to comply, "No, I won't sell your pathetic excuse of a car. But you're not allowed to work on it anymore, just send it into the shop."

"Fine." Emma smiled, shrugging, "I just pretty you so much!"

"You pretty me?"

"Love, I love your pretty pretty face."

"You and I are having a serious talk about common sense and safety when you get down from your drug high."

* * *

Henry was fifteen years old, in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years of high school when he ventured downstairs in the middle of the night to search for a snack.

To his surprise, the light in the kitchen was already on. As he rounded the kitchen island, he saw two legs sticking out from the cupboard beneath the sink.

Deciding to have a bit of fun, Henry quietly snuck around the side of the legs and rapped his knuckles on the counter right beside the sink, "Anybody home?" He smirked.

The legs recoiled quickly and Henry knew that the women beneath the counter must have tried to sit up quickly as he heard a muttered, "Ow, shit."

Moments later, Regina's head appeared with her hair mussed up from where Regina must have hit it on the bottom of the sink.

"What are you doing?" Henry asked, glancing beneath the sink to see a couple of towels and a few tools laid out in the empty cabinet space.

He knew that Emma had been tinkering with the sink all day, trying to fix a leak that had been building. She had been unable to fix the problem, and still refused to call a plumber like Regina had asked.

"I'm just uh- taking a look at the sink." Regina said, Henry knew from fifteen years of experience that she was lying.

"But Ma was trying all day to fix it."

"That she was." The mayor said with a small, sneaky smile.

He knelt down and took a peek at the pipe, surprised to see that it was no longer leaking.

"How'd you know how to do that?"

"Emma's apparently never heard of plumber's tape."

"Will you teach me?" Henry asked. He had been trying to pick up as much handy knowledge as possible, but learning from Emma was proving to be a difficult way to gain that knowledge.

"Sure, but don't you dare tell your mother." She said.

"Deal."

With that, he laid down and wiggled under the sink beside Regina so she could show him where to shut off the water before loosening the pipe. After she explained the entire process to him, they both scooted out from beneath the sink.

"How come you didn't just fix it earlier today?"

Regina smiled, "Your Ma likes to think that she's something of a handy woman."

Henry still looked confused so Regina elaborated, "It's easier if she's happy."

"Oh."

"Plus she looks damn good in a toolbelt."

"Mom!" Henry blanched, Regina just laughed in reply ant put the tools away.

* * *

 **A/N- Just a short and sweet story for you all this morning! Hope you enjoyed, I'm still working on my next** **multi chapter story 'Falling in Love (Apart)' and also another short single story like this from Regina's perspective.**

 **Drop a review and let me know what you thought!**


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